Gulftainer acquires majority share in Gulf Stevedoring

At the Jeddah Islamic Port, the company will operate the Northern Container Terminal (NCT) on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, Jubail Commercial Port (JCP) and Jubail Industrial Port (JIP) on the east coast. Both Jeddah and Jubail are key growth areas in the country with strong, positive economic forecasts, following massive government investments in infrastructure.

Jubail in particular is seen as critical to economic development, with the government having recently invested SAR 800m (US$215m) in its two facilities to increase its capacity and cope with increasing trade.  In recent years, the government confirmed investments in excess of SAR480bn (US$129bn) in energy and infrastructure projects in the surrounding region, which in turn is expected to spur massively increasing terminal activity.

Jeddah’s NCT has recently undergone significant expansion and now has an annual capacity of 3m teu; almost 75% of all container traffic to the Kingdom is currently handled through the Port of Jeddah, which is a major trade gateway for the country’s container traffic.